I wonder what this message will do. This is not a question, but something I’m examining. Sadly, we pastors sometimes put the congregation through a maze which seems to lead nowhere. I’m afraid some of the messages I’ve given over the past four decades fit into the following categories.
- Annoying messages
- Interesting messages
- Sad messages
- Ill-prepared messages
- Overdone messages
- Lacking-substance messages
- Long messages
- Short messages (Is this a favorite of most everyone?)
What does the Scripture have to say about our delivery as pastors and teachers?
Acts 20:20
how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,
1 Corinthians 2:4-5
and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Conclusions I’ve arrived at:
Don’t make it too long. Like the gambler, I’ve made a living of reading faces. So, if I’m not connecting, I need to close in prayer and pick it up at another time. If I’m irritating someone I don’t like, then I’m tempted to drag it out. (Not really) Sometimes it looks like no one is breathing. I find myself going back in my mind to my last minutes of communication, praying my audience is responding to the Word. Like a pilot, the two most dangerous times in flying are during the take-off and the landing. I pray I took off and landed this devotional correctly.
Think about it.
Gary